Recently in Budgets Category
Assemblymember Ed Hernandez (D-57th District) fielded questions during a "Town Hall" meeting at Edgewood
Academy in La Puente on Saturday, March 15.
The meeting was set up by the Bassett Unified School District to get input from parents, teachers and community members on the pending state budget cuts to education.The proposed cuts may result in as much as $1.9 million in cuts to schools in Bassett's budget next year.
"We are probably in the most difficult budget crisis in the history of the state of California right now," Hernandez said.
"And the governor wants to balance the budget on the backs of our children and our educational system. The money that we need to pay for all the services is not there."
Hernandez said an increase in revenue is needed to solve the problem.
"There is a message that you have to send to the legislature - do not cut our budget - we need to increase revenue," he said.
There's an AP story that says school budgets across the country are facing even leaner times now. And it looks very bad for California schools:
Among the most worried were board members from California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed more than $4 billion in cuts to schools.
"It would decimate education as it exists right now," said Paul Chatman, a school board member from Ocean View, Calif.
Chatman said some of the district's new teachers, who aren't protected by seniority rules, will lose their jobs, even if the governor's cuts are scaled back as expected.
"It's unavoidable," he said glumly. "Those are going to be the ones that are going to have to go."
